The Children of the Plains A Story of Travel and Adventure from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains

Sarah Schoonmaker Baker

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 Excerpt: ...5 The childrens bedroom admitted too much light to render late morning sleep desirable. They had no curtained windows to favour lazy dozing, and as soon as the sun brightened up the eastern sky, they were awake and preparing for their journey. They were both suffering sadly from thirst. Ruths tongue was parched, and felt like paper Curtis could not suppress his complaints, as he moistened his lips with the dew that beaded the grass. If we only had a camel! said Curtis, as he laid an India-rubber water-bag among the articles with which John was to be loaded. But this bag some poor fellow has left behind, and it must answer the purpose when we find good water. The old camping-ground was carefully searched by the children, and everything that could be useful to them was packed upon Johns back. The little party set out, by no means in good spirits. Ruth was quiet Curtis cross, and the mules jaded, and evidently failing in strength. The emigrant trains usually so unwelcome a sight to Ruth, she now would gladly have welcomed, if but a single cup of cold water could have been obtained from them. For a wonder the road was perfectly deserted. Not a single white waggon varied the dull line of the seemingly interminable pathway. The children rode on in silence, upward, upward, as they crossed the bluff which divides the waters of the South and North Forks of the Platte. The crest of the ridge was reached at last, and weary as the children were, they could not help stopping to admire the beauty of the scene stretched out before them. On one side was the wide rolling prairie they had just crossed on the other, a landscape varied by rocky ridges and deep ravines, which, as it seemed, only an experienced mountaineer could cross in safety. Rut...